FAKE: This digital card with a quote attributed to Kenyan legislator, Moses Kuria, is fabricated
A digital card shared on Twitter purporting to be from Kenyans.co.ke, in which Moses Kuria, the member of parliament for Gatundu South constituency, is quoted is FAKE.
In the quote, MP Kuria expresses his view about the upcoming by-elections in Kiambaa constituency, alluding that the candidate he supports will lose.
Kuria, who is the leader of the People’s Empowerment Party (PEP), had initially announced endorsing Raymond Kuria as the party’s candidate in the by-elections.
However, he later withdrew in favour of the UDA candidate, a decision he appears to regret, according to the quote.
“We will lose in Kiambaa because of Rigathi Gachagua for imposing his son to the people of Kiambaa. Raymond Kuria was the right candidate for Hustlers (sic),” reads the quote which is dated 9 July 2021.
The digital card was also shared by other social media users, including here and here.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has scheduled the by-election for 15 July 2021. The Kiambaa parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of the sitting MP, Paul Koinange, due to COVID-19 complications on 31 March 2021.
Among contestants in the by-elections are the ruling Jubilee Party’s candidate Kariri Njama and John Njuguna, who will represent United Democratic Alliance (UDA) — a party allied to Kenya’s Deputy President, William Ruto.
However, there is no information about the quote in question on Kuria’s Facebook timeline, where he routinely comments on the political developments in the country.
Also, such a quote does not appear on Kenyans.co.ke’s Facebook and Twitter timelines, where the publication posts all its digital cards.
On 9 July 2021, the publication posted both on its Facebook and Twitter timelines, disowning the digital card in question.
“This quote did not emanate from our media house. It does not conform to the in-house branding rules and did not go through the multiple approval checks set in place to prevent misreporting,” reads the post.
PesaCheck has looked into the digital card purporting to be from Kenyans.co.ke, with a quote attributed to the member of parliament for Gatundu South constituency, Moses Kuria, and finds it to be FAKE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck deputy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by managing editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.